


Complexes

by kory_anders



Category: DCU
Genre: Gen, This is pretty angsty, also violence warning but nothing is too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 16:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14622579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kory_anders/pseuds/kory_anders
Summary: My little rewrite of Under the Red Hood





	Complexes

The streets were quiet this late at night. People were too afraid of the gangs to venture out in the cover of darkness unless they had the protection of a mask. There was so much a person could do when no one knew who they were. 

This anonymity allowed the Bats to move from neighborhood to neighborhood, never stopping on their quest to bring peace and justice to Gotham City. Police forces can only do so much when faced with magic or growth serum or a giant bat. After the people saw what was beyond their city border, the Bats had an easier time operating. 

Recently, a new mask popped into town. He wasn’t like the rest of the villains though. His clothes were different; his actions were different. What confused Bruce the most was his helmet and the big red bat symbol across his chest. Everything about him (including his own words) screamed Red Hood, but there was the symbol. He couldn’t piece it together, until he did. 

_ Jason.  _

Once he figured it out, his whole life came flooding back, and tears began to form in his eyes. Bruce could hardly believe that his son came back from the dead. It was almost too much to bear; a reminder that he had failed in the worst way possible. Nothing mattered in the end if he couldn’t keep his family safe.

That led him to a confrontation in an abandoned apartment complex. Standing there in front of Bruce was his son and one of his worst enemies. He could feel his chest tightening from the scene before him, and time slowed down.

Jason had beaten the Joker with a crowbar, clearly trying to get revenge for what had happened in the past. Bruce wanted to pull him away and get him out of that awful place, but his body was frozen. All he could do was watch and notice. Jason’s mask had been thrown to the side in an attempt to get the clown to see what he had done. 

He couldn’t know that there was no reasoning with him. Joker’s mind was too far gone to understand any sort of empathy or compassion. 

“I don’t care that I died. You know that right? I forgave you when Talia pulled me out of the Pit because I realized that you had no time to save me. I remembered watching you pull me out of the wreckage with Deadman. That part wasn’t your fault,” Jason said in a low voice. His grip on Joker’s collar was tight and with his other hand he was gesturing wildly. 

Bruce swallowed the lump in his throat before replying, “You may have forgiven me for that, but I can’t. I could never forgive myself for letting you get hurt.” 

“It was really Shiva’s fault for lying to me in the first place, but I was a kid. I’d’ve believed anyone’s ‘information’ about my parents.” He paused as he noticed the shocked look on Bruce’s face. “What? Talia didn’t tell you? Yeah, turns out Shiva lied, but that doesn’t matter. You’re only upset because I was your biggest mistake.”

“Jason, that’s not-” Bruce started to say before being interrupted. 

“Oh cut the shit old man, we both know that’s what you think of me. Poor little embarrassing Robin, couldn’t even save himself when the time came. Is that it? I embarrass you?”

Bruce wanted so desperately to reach out and just grab a hold of his son, but his body was still frozen in place. His mind was racing a million miles per minute, and he just couldn’t focus on anything except his son being back. The words Jason was saying took the breath right out of him. How could his son think that about himself? 

“Of course not, I was proud of you. You were a great kid and a great Robin; it was me who failed.”

Jason laughed bitterly and shook the Joker a bit, making sure he was still alive and awake. He was quiet for a moment before he said, “You say that now that I’ve asked you, but where was this when I was a kid? Where was my father? I needed you, and you didn’t give enough of anything.”

“It- it was hard for me. Things with your brother weren’t great, and I was so afraid you were going to grow up and hate me too. Jason, I made a lot of mistakes but the biggest one wasn’t making you part of the family. It was not showing you that you were while you were still around.”

“No, it was letting him live,” Jason said as he pulled out one of his guns and placed it on the Joker’s temple. “Why couldn’t you be more like me? I get your code, but why stick to it with him? After Harley and Babs and me, why couldn’t you just get rid of him?”

Bruce stared at his son for a moment, trying to choose his words carefully. Jason wasn’t thinking straight, and one wrong misstep would send him away again. He breathed in and out once before saying, “I thought about it. Everyday since then, I have thought about hunting him down and making him pay for what he did, but Jason you don’t understand. I don’t think you ever did about me. When my parents died, I thought if I didn’t kill and if I soothed the suffering other people caused, the universe would never let anyone I cared about die like that again.”

His breath shuddered as he reminded himself of all the painful memories in his past. It was like he was reliving each one over and over again. 

“That was never the case though. I came close to letting him die once. Dick killed him one night just beat him until he was bloody and broken, but I couldn’t let him go through with it. He was always so much more intensely pulled into his emotions than you were. He loved and hurt and felt with his entire being that I knew he couldn’t ever come back from that.”

Jason tensed up as he listened to his father’s words. Everything was dead quiet until he broke the silence with “He was dead? And you brought him back? I can’t fucking believe you Bruce. Someone finally did your dirty work, and you couldn’t even let him stay dead?”

“Dick is too-”

“We aren’t talking about Dick. We’re talking about him. Gods, I would never ask you to kill Penguin or Scarecrow or Harvey, just him. Just this clown because he took me away from you!”

He pressed the gun harder against the clown’s head. It was surprising that he had stayed quiet on his own for this long, but this was a pretty intense moment between the two of them. 

Jason glared down at the Joker and said, “You have to decide now Bruce: him or me? One of us isn’t leaving here alive, and you’ve got to chose.”

Bruce nodded. He knew that this was what was coming, and there was not clearer choice for him now. “I won’t chose, but I won’t stop you from doing whatever you need to do. The choice was always you, son.”

With that, Jason and Bruce both closed their eyes, and a gunshot rang out. He didn’t want to open his eyes, but Jason needed him now. Their eyes opened, still looking straight at each other. A moment passed, and then Jason threw himself into Bruce’s arms crying. 

Bruce immediately wrapped his arms around his son and ran a soothing hand down his back. They stood there, embracing for what felt like hours until Jason pulled away. He almost looked like the scared kid he was when they first met, but that faded as Jason regained a bit of control over his emotions again. 

“What happens now? Where are you going to send me?” he asked. He didn’t want to be away from his family again, but he wouldn’t apologize for what he did. 

“We’re going home, and I won’t let anything bad happen to you again.”

His family was back together now; nothing would keep them apart again. 


End file.
